in Conklin, New York. Back then, the farm was considered the nicest operation between Elmira and Oneonta, and consisted of over 500 acres. At the start of the Civil War in 1860, the US government took the property by eminent domain, and my great-great grandfather, his brother, and their families ended up across the Susquehanna River, still in Conklin (the west side of the river had seceded and been renamed Kirkwood).

In 1911, the Lackawanna railroad purchased a majority of that farm to

expand their railyards, and Broome County purchased the rest for future

development. That led to the family’s relocation to Nichols, where we have

managed to remain ever since. An interesting side note, we are now the

closest dairy farm to the west of Binghamton along the Route 17 corridor, a

distance of 30 miles--every dairy farm east of ours along the river has been

Our farm was inundated with between 8 and 12 feet of water in and around all of our buildings. Once the water receded, we were left with ankle deep mud in, on and around everything. Our pastures closest to the creek are covered with two feet of mud, and the western parts of both fields next to the Wappasening Creek have between four and five feet of mud covering our fences.